Tributes paid to ten-year-old schoolgirl who died in mudslide
The person killed in the mudslide in North Yorkshire on Wednesday has been named as schoolgirl Leah Harrison.
Thirty mountain rescuers were among the huge emergency services response on Wednesday after the “much loved” ten-year-old died.
In a statement released on Thursday, her family described her as a “happy” girl who dreamed of playing for the Lionesses.
The statement read: “Leah Harrison, the happy, bubbly, go-lucky little girl. The beautiful smile, the giddy laugh, the silly jokes. You will never ever be forgotten baby girl. You will achieve you dream and become a player for the Lionesses. Spread those wings. May you rest in paradise.”
Lingfield Education Trust said she was a Year 6 pupil at Mount Pleasant Primary School in Darlington.
Chief executive of the school’s trust Nick Blackburn said: “The full details are still emerging but this is clearly a heart-breaking tragedy.
“Leah was a much-loved part of our school and our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, and the school staff.
“Counselling is being arranged within the school for pupils and staff.
“We are all in a state of shock and we would ask that the privacy of the family and the school community is respected while we try to come to terms with what has happened.”
Shared on Facebook, Leah’s family statement adds there are plans for a “balloon release” in a local field at 4pm on Monday.
They are being supported by specially-trained officers.
Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) volunteers were called in the early afternoon to reports of a mudslide near Carlton Bank, above Carlton-in-Cleveland village on the edge of the North York Moors National Park.
North Yorkshire Police later confirmed one person had died following the incident at around 1.15pm.
The force said there were no other injuries at the time and urged the public to avoid the area.
The Met Office said the area had seen almost a month’s worth of rain in the past day, with 41.6mm of rain recorded over the last 24 hours in Loftus, a town 20 miles away.
Simon Partridge, a forecaster at the Met Office, said: “The average monthly rainfall for May in North Yorkshire is 57.5mm so they’ve almost had a month’s worth of rainfall today.”
Showers will continue to batter parts of the UK as yellow and amber warnings for rain remain in place across the UK on Thursday.
More follows on this breaking news story…